You Keep Me Grounded (I'll Keep You Afloat)
by TheDoublemintTwins11
Summary: When Luffy is thrown overboard during a storm, Zoro goes after him without a thought. Now the two are marooned and left to wait for their crew-if they come for them at all. But there's something far more sinister on this island than either of them were prepared for, and they soon find themselves in much more trouble than they bargained for. ZoLu.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey! Here's our latest story. We've always wanted to write a fic like this (these sort of stories are definitely our favorite, and there are so many ways to add fun twists) Enjoy!**

-DMTwins-

A large wave slammed against the hull and the ship lurched violently for what must have been the hundredth time. The clouds hung above their heads ominously, letting almost no sunlight through despite the fact that it was mid-day. The crew had been hit by surprise by the storm. Had it not been for Nami, there would have been no warning whatsoever.

It had taken mere minutes for the breeze that Nami had said "smelled like rain" to turn into a full blown squall. She had ordered the crew to clean up the deck and fasten down any loose crates. The wind was howling and the storm was roaring by the time they'd finished raising the sails.

Most of the crew had retreated below deck after completing their jobs. Only Zoro and Luffy remained on deck, fastening down the crates of supplies that they had bought a few days ago and had failed to unload in time. Zoro cursed the cook under his breath-a good majority of these supplies were bought for the kitchen. Who the hell needs this much silverware? How many forks can one person own?

Zoro glanced over to Luffy, who was attempting to hold three crates together long enough to wrap a rope around them. He had an intense look of concentration on his face that made Zoro want to laugh. One of the crates got away from him and slid across the deck to tumble down the stairs. Luffy watched it go then turned to Zoro with an expectant look. Zoro sighed and ran off after it. Luffy chuckled as Zoro scrambled for the railing when a particularly large wave nearly sent him headfirst down the stairs.

Luffy returned his attention to the two offending crates that were currently sliding back and forth across the deck. The two collided, sending one spinning toward Luffy and the other tumbling straight for the railing. With a sickening wood-splitting sound that Luffy swore sounded _just _like the sound of Franky yelling at him for his carelessness, the crate went over the edge. Luffy ran over and lunged for it, catching it as he hung halfway over the edge of the ship. As he was pulling it back onto the ship, one of the largest waves he had ever seen slammed into the side of the ship, sending a sheet of water splashing across the deck. He was thrown forward over the edge. Dropping the crate, he grabbed the railing of the ship and watched the crate as it was swallowed by the waves. He breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that he was not in the crate's place. Luffy felt one of his hands slip and his grip with the other hand tightened as he swung around with the tilt of the ship. He felt a cold wind blow across his face, and watched with a horrified look, as his hat fell, guided by the wind, into the raging waters.

He watched as it was swallowed by the waves and, without a second thought, plunged in after it.

* * *

The first thing Zoro noticed as he climbed back up the stairs with the escaped crate in hand was that one of the crates was missing. In fact, that wasn't the only thing that was missing…

Zoro's breath caught in his throat when he spotted the splintered wood hanging from what had been a beautifully carved rail. Without skipping a beat he discarded his swords on the deck—careful to be sure they clattered down the stairs to a place that they wouldn't be able to fall off—and dove off the edge of the ship.

The ocean was so cold that it felt like a physical punch. The deafening roar of the waves above was almost entirely muted below the surface. Zoro swore internally at how hard it was to see in the murky water. With no time to allow his eyes to adjust to the darkness, he began to swim downward. He pressed forward, as far as he could swim, and then he kept swimming. His lungs ached, how the hell was he going to find Luffy in almost total darkness? He silently prayed that he would handle drowning as well as he handled blood loss.

Just as he was beginning to think that he wouldn't be able to reach Luffy in time he thought he saw a glimpse of red below him. He strained his eyes and saw the silhouette of a person only a few feet below him, sinking fast. He tore through the water as quickly as he could, until his hand brushed against the front of his vest. He grabbed it and immediately began to swim upwards. He was fighting the currents now, and he couldn't think of a time that he was more grateful for his training—he glided through the water easily. He felt as though he'd been swimming for hours, and just as his vision was beginning to blur, he broke through the surface. Zoro gasped and coughed, then pulled Luffy closer to himself. A wave of relief washed over him when he realized that he was only unconscious, and still breathing. The Thousand Sunny had drifted a good hundred feet away.

Zoro looked down at his captain, who looked oddly peaceful. Something was missing…

Shit.

Zoro looked frantically between the Sunny, Luffy, and the water. He groaned inwardly, knowing damn well what his captain wanted him to do. He pressed a hand over Luffy's mouth and nose to keep him from inhaling any more water and dove back down below the water. The roar of the waves disappeared once more as he began to swim downward. He was getting tired, and the fact that he only had one hand to swim with made it increasingly hard to fight the currents. He spotted Luffy's hat about fifteen away. It was lighter and slower to sink, and its bright color made it easy to see in the darkness. Zoro snatched it and began to return to the surface once more. He was swimming furiously. Just as he was about to break the surface he smashed his head on something. He gasped in pain, which he immediately regretted when the air in his lungs was replaced with water.

Zoro grabbed onto it and realized that it was the crate that had been missing from the Sunny's deck. He pulled Luffy onto it, and coughing violently, tried to locate the Sunny. He spotted it a few hundred yards away and immediately began to shout in an attempt to draw attention to himself. After a while he realized that the ship was slowly shrinking into the distance. Zoro swore angrily, but he could hardly hear himself over the wind. The ship was sailing away from them, and there was no way that he would be heard. The crew probably hadn't even noticed that they were gone, and might not for who knew how long since everyone else had retreated inside.

So he resigned himself to making sure that they stayed afloat as they were pushed further and further from their ship.

* * *

He had no idea how long they had been drifting, but he suspected that it had been more than one day that they had been afloat. He was exhausted and he had swallowed more than his fair share of seawater, only to cough it back up again as soon as he tried to take a breath. He glared at the water that had been taking up residence in his lungs as though it were poison. The storm had long since subsided, and now Zoro was simply waiting for rescue. Luffy hadn't made any noises since Zoro first fished him out of the water, and he couldn't help but check every couple minutes to make sure that his captain was only sleeping. He told himself that the seawater was draining him, so of course he hadn't woken up yet.

Needless to say, it was difficult to keep both himself and his captain from slipping below the water's surface. The crate they were holding onto wasn't very buoyant, so it bobbed under the water if Zoro tried to put their full weight on it. Zoro was tired, and the mundane scenery wasn't helping him stay awake at all. He tried to focus, but it was getting harder every moment. He realized that he'd been staring at a red spot on the crate. He frowned, before realizing that it was an apple, only the picture was upside down. It had taken him much too long to realize that.

Zoro sighed and rested his forehead on the crate. He looked sideways at his captain, who was sleeping with a peaceful expression on his face. After shifting so that he could better keep Luffy from sliding off the crate, Zoro put his head down on the crate again and allowed himself a moment to rest. Only a moment. At least, he thought it was only a moment, so when the crate's bottom scraped against sand his original reaction was to ignore it and assume that he had imagined it. There'd been no island in sight, so there was no way they'd struck sand. When it happened a second time, however, he gathered enough energy to look up. He saw a wide stretch of beach hardly twenty feet away, and he wasn't sure whether he should be happy that they struck land or disappointed that they hadn't found the Sunny yet.

With all the strength he could muster he grabbed Luffy—who had refused to wake up no matter how hard Zoro had tried—and dragged him toward the shore. The second Zoro stepped onto the beach he felt just how tired he was. What he'd felt earlier was nothing compared to this. He grabbed his captain and dragged him as far onto the shore as he could manage before collapsing on the beach.

* * *

Luffy frowned and shifted his position. He was really tired, but this bed was really uncomfortable. It was cold, and scratchy, and all-around lumpy. He sighed and opened one bleary eye to the daylight. His frown deepened as he took in his surroundings. He was on a beach, a few feet from the water. About one hundred feet from the water was the first sign of plant life and beyond that was the beginning of a forest.

Luffy sighed and pushed himself onto his knees. He was tired, and his clothes were soaked—probably from being in the ocean, which explained why he was so tired in the first place. He turned away and saw Zoro, who was lying up to his waist in water and sleeping soundly. Scooting forward to nudge him with his foot, Luffy tried to remember why they were on a beach, no Sunny in sight. He remembered a storm, trying to tie down crates, and…

"My hat!"

His eyes widened enormously and one hand shot to his head. Panicked he leaped to his feet and spun in a circle, franticly searching for his hat. Seeing nothing on the beach, he turned to the ocean to see if it was floating away. He stepped back only to catch his foot on Zoro's leg. He stumbled, flailed, and fell in a heap on the ground. It was then that he saw a piece of his hat protruding from beneath Zoro's arm.

"Thanks, Zoro!" He laughed, grabbing his hat. After shaking the sand off of it, and picking off a few pieces of seaweed, he replaced it on his head. He turned to his first mate with a curious look on his face.

"Oi, Zoro." He whined poking his first mate on the shoulder. "Wake up." He frowned when this earned no reaction, and proceeded to poke the swordsman in the cheek instead. When this still earned no reaction, he grabbed the swordsman and dragged him farther onto the beach so that the waves couldn't reach him—even in high tide.

Luffy sighed and sat down next to his first mate. Zoro was probably tired. After all, for all the time that Luffy was asleep—and he had no clue how long it had been—not only was he awake, but he was trying to keep them both from drowning. Luffy frowned and brushed a piece of seaweed from Zoro's forehead. Though he'd never blame him for it, it was essentially Luffy's fault that they were stuck here, and that made him feel a little guilty. Guilty enough to apologize—which he did—but not guilty enough to sit and wait with his first mate until he woke up. Because this was a new island, after all, and he wanted to get a look around.

Standing, Luffy first pulled off his vest, which was soaked, and laid it out next to Zoro. He considered doing the same for Zoro, but decided that it would be too much of a hassle. Besides, the swordsman looked perfectly content to lie on the scratchy sand in a wet shirt and sleep the hours away.

So, with a promise that he would return, Luffy bounded off down the beach, searching for anything and everything cool or mysterious. He didn't get far, however, before a large rock face caught his attention. It was huge and almost entirely vertical. The only way you could get to the top would be if you had wings or—as luck would have it—a devil's fruit. Luffy ran at it, excited to see the island from such a high point, and rocketed himself to the top.

He landed with a clatter of sandals on rock, but did no damage—which was always good. There was nothing remarkable about the rock itself. It was large, but almost empty. Almost, save for the bird that was startled from its nest when he first landed. Luffy turned with excitement towards the island.

From what he could see, there was a ring of beach, followed by a ring of thin forest that got thicker as it went to the center. The rings were entirely visible, especially at the points in the island where the land very abruptly started to grow more and more plant life. He hummed in awe at the rings, and focused on the center. The trees not only grew thicker here, but taller as well, so that the island looked like a giant pyramid. There was a stream far off to this left that eventually disappeared into the trees of the center ring. To his right, he could see Zoro and his shirt lying on the beach.

Luffy smiled in excitement before about-facing to search the ocean for any sign of the Thousand Sunny. He could see the ocean almost all the way around the Island—save for the spot just beyond the point of the pyramid. It was big, and beautiful, but there was no Sunny to be had.

Only slightly disappointed, Luffy decided to head back to see if he could wake Zoro up so that they could decide what to do, when he spied the bird that he'd startled earlier. The bird was large—it stood as tall as Luffy, and its wings were huge. It was eyeing him warily, hopping closer to him every few moments. Luffy grinned devilishly, which the bird seemed to pick up on since it stopped hopping closer.

He was tired, that was sure, but the only thing that he was more was hungry. And here in front of him was a giant piece of meat. Taking a moment to position himself, he launched himself at the bird, which narrowly escaped capture. Luffy missed and flew right over the edge of the cliff. The bird appeared to laugh at him, that is, until Luffy turned to grab the rock face and rocket himself up at it for a second try. Again, it evaded capture, and began flying toward the center of the island, shrieking as it went, while Luffy began to fall over the opposite edge of the cliff. By the time that Luffy had gotten back onto the cliff, the bird was well on its way to disappearing into the thickest part of the forest.

No sooner had it disappeared into the forest did the bird's shrieking stop. Or rather, it _was stopped_, as the bird gave one dying shriek before being killed by whatever it was that had claimed it as its dinner. Luffy pouted, not at all curious about what kind of creature could have killed a bird that size so quickly, but rather jealous. He sighed exasperatedly—all that effort for naught. That was when he spied the bird's nest, which held two large eggs.

He smiled to himself and went to retrieve them. They were no giant bird, but they were better than nothing. Carefully placing one under each arm, he leaped off the edge of the cliff, intending to free-fall all the way to the ground. He hoped that the eggs wouldn't crack when he landed. The shells were sort of leathery and tough, so it was no surprise when they survived the landing. Satisfied, Luffy took off back the way he'd come to go and find Zoro once more. As he grew nearer, he was happy to see the swordsman sitting up, holding his vest in one hand and looking out to the ocean.

"Zoro!" He yelled, causing the person in question to turn, almost in alarm, before visible relief spread across his face. Zoro raised an eyebrow at the watermelon-sized eggs Luffy held under either arm.

"What're those?"

"Dinner!" Luffy beamed, setting them on the ground and sitting down himself. He frowned at the eggs, before turning to Zoro. "How do we eat them?" He asked, looking lost. Zoro shrugged and shoved Luffy's vest into his hands.

"I don't know, but put your vest on. You're going to get sunburned." He mumbled.

"We could eat them raw…" Luffy offered, picking one up and preparing to crack the shell on his knee. Zoro frowned.

"That's disgusting." Luffy stopped, looking up at Zoro.

"But I'm hungry." He stated, rather bluntly. Zoro sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He was no cook, nor was he a doctor, but he was still pretty sure that you could get sick eating raw eggs. Not to mention the fact that eating an egg that size raw could only be appetizing to someone like Luffy.

He frowned and stood, glancing around briefly before walking towards the shoreline to retrieve a large, flat rock. He carried it back to Luffy and dropped it next to the eggs.

"Hold this." He said, walking away from the beach to collect some wood. Luffy leaped to his feet and followed Zoro, who already had an armful of wood.

"We'll make a fire, and we'll cook them." The swordsman said in response to the confused look his captain was giving him. "We need one anyway." He picked up another stick. Luffy reluctantly followed suit. This seemed like a hassle just to avoid eating a few eggs raw.

But he trusted Zoro, so he sidled up alongside him, brushing against him fleetingly as he started to collect sticks.


	2. Chapter 2

-DMTwins-

Zoro and Luffy had spent the good part of an hour scouring the beach for a way to start a fire—flint, anything—and they still had yet to find anything useful. Zoro was preparing to resort to the old-fashioned "rub two sticks together until they ignited" trick, which was actually more like "make Luffy rub two sticks together until they ignited", but a part of him couldn't help but feel that would be unwise. He didn't actually have a reason—he just knew Luffy better than that.

Not only had their search proved fruitless, but Zoro had been forced to keep an eye on Luffy, who still looked as though he were contemplating the idea of eating the eggs raw. There were plenty of rocks on the beach that _looked_ like they could be used to start a fire, but when it came right down to it, well, Zoro was starting to question whether or not it was even _possible _start a fire with rocks. If he had his swords—even one sword—he was confidant that he could have started a fire by now.

"Oi, Zoro?" Luffy asked. Zoro looked up from where he was stooping to collect a rather odd-shaped rock, running a hand through his hair as he did so.

"What?" Luffy frowned, and pointed in the direction the rock face he'd climbed earlier.

"What's that?" Zoro followed the direction of his extended finger. At first he didn't see anything, but after a moment, his attention turned not to the beach, but to the water just beyond it. Bobbing on the waves was, most certainly, the form of the crate that had fallen off of the Sunny's deck.

"A crate." He'd completely forgotten about the crate, actually. After all, there wasn't a lot of time for him to think between when he first struck land and the when he'd passed out on the sand, and he had not bothered to secure the crate. By the time he'd woken up, he forgotten all about it. The currents running around the island must have kept it from drifting too far.

The two paused, staring at the crate for a moment before Luffy grinned widely—a mysterious crate was much more interesting that searching for rocks, after all. He took off in the direction of the crate, intending to retrieve it from the water. Before he could charge into the surf, however, a strong arm clamped around his waist, effectively stopping him in his tracks. Zoro gave him an exasperated look.

He laughed sheepishly at Zoro, remembering that yes, he was an anchor and couldn't swim, so resigned himself to waiting patiently on the beach while the swordsman dragged the crate onto the shore. As soon as he did so, however, Luffy was on top of it, wrenching the lid off to dump the contents onto the beach.

Most of the box was filled with an assortment of skillets, pots, and pans that looked more-or-less the same to Zoro. The cook had bought a number of them, however, so he could only assume that they were _special_ pots and pans, and served some purpose that the skillets, pots, and pans that were _already in the kitchen_ weren't good enough for. Zoro couldn't really tell the difference. There was also a large two-pronged fork, a spoon of the like, and a big ceramic bowl that would have broken when it was dumped from the box if it weren't for the plain, white tablecloth that was wrapped protectively around it.

Zoro sighed and snatched the fork from Luffy, just as the teen was about to stab it into the sand with all his worth. Luffy frowned.

"What'd you do that for?" Zoro scraped the contents of the crate back into its container, with one hand, holding the box steady with the other.

"I have no idea _what_ you were doing with that… but if you break any of Sanji's things, he'll kill you. Besides, we might need that." He replied, replacing the lid on the crate as he did so. He then grabbed the bottom of the large box and lifted it as though it were weightless, carrying it back to where the eggs were still waiting patiently to be devoured. Luffy followed, grinning and talking about how Sanji was probably more upset with the missing crate than he was over his missing nakama.

Zoro smirked at this, knowing full and well that the cook was probably busy _pretending _that he didn't care. He set the crate down next to the flat rock—which he had been intending to use as a makeshift frying pan until the discovery of the crate and, with it, a _real _frying pan.

"Oi, Luffy, hand me that fork-thing." Luffy fished around in the box before pulling out the utensil in question. He handed it to the swordsman, who grabbed it and the flat-rock, striking them together with remarkable force and causing sparks to fly everywhere. As marvelous as the display was, the kindling that they'd managed to collect refused to light, and it took multiple tries to get the fire to actually start.

Luffy, on the other hand, was busy lining up the contents of the box on the beach. He lined up all the pots and pans, as well as the utensils, before grabbing the tablecloth and giving it a hardy shake. Of course, the ceramic bowl _inside_ the tablecloth went flying, and Luffy very narrowly avoided letting it smash on the beach by grabbing it unsteadily with his foot.

He laughed and gave Zoro a thumbs up, setting the bowl down next to a large pressure-cooker and discarding the wadded-up tablecloth there as well. Zoro rolled his eyes and continued to add wood to the small fire.

"Hey, look at this, Zoro!" Luffy yelled, holding out a small leather case that they'd missed the first time around, "You can use this as a sword until you get your real ones back." He beamed, offering it to the swordsman. Zoro quirked and eyebrow and grabbed the item in question. His expression turned from one of curiosity to one of disgust.

"This is a pairing knife, Luffy," He said, holding the little, eight centimeter blade by its handle. "What the hell kind of good is this going to do?" Luffy pouted, looking insulted, and held out his hand.

"Fine, if you don't want it, I'll take it." He said, "But you're going to wish you had it later." Zoro sighed, looking at the boy before him and slipping the knife back into its leather case.

"No, I guess it's better than nothing…" He hummed, shoving the knife into his pocket. "Thanks."

Luffy grinned and offered a quick 'no problem' before grabbing an egg and proceeding to crack it on his knee. Most of the insides of the egg stayed inside either side of the shell, though some of it dribbled onto the sand. Luffy then grabbed the largest frying pan from the box and dumped the contents into the pan. Even in the largest pan, there was only enough room to fit one egg at a time.

Zoro took the pan from Luffy's grasp before he could spill the contents and set it over the fire, grabbing the fork to make sure that it didn't burn.

"The first one is yours." He promised, prodding the egg and trying to keep from completely ruining the meal—he was no cook after all. After a good ten minutes of cooking he dumped the egg—scrambled—into the bowl so that he could cook the second in the pan, and handed Luffy the bowl.

His captain grinned beautifully and grabbed the bowl. Zoro smirked as Luffy began shoveling the eggs into his mouth, focusing on keeping his own meal from burning. It wasn't long after Zoro removed the pan from the fire that he realized just how hungry he was. He ate straight from the pan, all too aware of his captain, who was inching closer every few moments and giving the swordsman a beseeching look. The swordsman scoffed, shoving an elbow in his captain's face to stop his advance.

"Hey Zoro can I have—"

"No." There was a moment of silence, in which Zoro though that maybe, just _maybe, _his captain had actually given up on asking for food. And then came the whine, quiet at first but growing in volume the longer Zoro chose to ignore it; originating from somewhere in the back of Luffy's throat. Zoro offered his captain a sidelong glance and sighed, rolling his eyes. Luffy, he was _sure_, was the only pirate in the world who actually pouted when he didn't get exactly what he wanted. After another minute of feeling his captain's eyes on his back, and a few more mouthfuls of the egg, he decided that he didn't really want to eat an entire frying pan of eggs on his own anyway, and offered the remaining quarter of the pan to an overly-happy Luffy.

Zoro sighed as he watched Luffy polish off the remainder of the eggs. The sun probably wouldn't be setting for another couple of hours or so, and Zoro wanted to try and find a source of fresh water before dark, or even better, a village of some sort, though the latter seemed rather unlikely. Zoro stood up and brushed the sand off his pants. He then grabbed one of the larger pots from where Luffy had lined them up on the beach.

"We should go find some water before it gets too dark to see…" Luffy leaped to his feet, setting the dirtied frying pan next to the bowl and grabbing a pot for himself.

"I saw a stream earlier… when I climbed up on that big rock over there." He said, jerking a thumb in the direction of the rock.

"Which way is it?" Zoro asked. Luffy hummed in thought, turning towards the tree line behind him.

"I think it was over here… Follow me." He said, walking off into the trees. Luffy led Zoro into the woods, following a path of his own. The swordsman wondered if he actually knew where he was going, but decided that Luffy had a better chance of finding the stream than he did. After all, he knew that occasionally, every once in a while, he got a bit turned around, and he fully intended to get back to camp _before_ dark.

The trees were average height and were growing apart enough that the leaves didn't keep any sunlight from slanting between the branches, but the trunks were still close enough together that you couldn't see very far ahead of you without a number of trees blocking your path. Luffy was walking a few feet ahead of him, singing loudly to himself and swinging the pot in his hand wildly.

"Luffy, what are you singing?" Luffy paused, thinking, before he laughed and whirled around to walk backwards.

"Just something I made up, I guess." He replied, grinning widely. Zoro grunted in response, but didn't say anything else. Seeing that the swordsman wasn't all that interested—and certainly wasn't going to ask for the words—Luffy turned to face the front again, and promptly fell on his face. Frankly, Zoro was amazed that this hadn't happened when he was walking backwards.

"Be Careful." Zoro grumbled, grabbing his captain's arm and hauling him to his feet. Luffy—amazingly—was still smiling as he whipped dirt off of his chin. He bent over and stripped the leaves off the branch of a small strong-smelling plant that he'd landed in. He held it out to Zoro, who couldn't help but notice the strong smell it was giving off.

"It smells like mint." Luffy said matter-of-factly. "Can I eat it?" Zoro frowned. He should have known that this had _something _to do with eating.

"I wouldn't suggest it." Zoro said. "We don't know what it is… besides, you just ate." Luffy regarded the plant for a moment, before stuffing it into his pocket.

"I'll save it for later." He said, reaching to grab another of the same kind to join the first. He pulled a few leaves off the branch and stuffed them into his mouth, despite Zoro's protests. "I've seen these before." He assured the swordsman, "Sanji uses them to cook…. I think… its something like that. Maybe not… but I have seen them," He shrugged and stuck a few more leaves into his mouth. "Besides they taste good—here try one." He offered a leaf.

"No…thanks. When you poison yourself with weird things I'm not dragging your ass back." Zoro said as he grabbed Luffy's fallen pot.

"Yes you would." Luffy said, calling his bluff. Zoro shrugged and hummed in agreement. He started off to try and find the stream again. After all, they only had so much time until the sun went down and…

"Zoro, weren't we going to get water?" Luffy asked, pointing a finger in the opposite direction that Zoro was walking. The swordsman paused, he was almost _sure_ that they'd come from that direction.

"Yeah…" He sighed, resigning himself to following Luffy again, the smell of mint following the boy as he went. He could only hope that those plants actually were mint, and wouldn't end up having some kind of weird side effects. He looked okay, but Zoro didn't necessarily trust it.

Before he could finish the thought, Luffy stopped short, earning a low growl from the swordsman when he bumped into the smaller man. Luffy held up a hand, eyes narrowed and fixed on a point somewhere ahead of him. Luffy motioned to a spot further up the path while a devilish grin spread across his face. Standing in the brush was a very furry rodent, although it was much larger than a normal rat. It was pawing at the ground, unaware that it was being hunted.

Immediately switching into predator-mode by the idea of meat, Luffy darted behind the nearest tree. Zoro watched in amusement as Luffy flitted from tree to tree, drawing closer. The rat blinked at him, having noticed his approach long before Luffy intended. He grew bored of the sneaky-approach quickly and lunged for it. The rat was much faster than he'd anticipated. It streaked away and disappeared into the brush, leaving the captain in a heap on the ground where the rat had once stood.

Zoro walked up to Luffy, who was still laying on the ground and watching the brush with longing, as though his meat might—just maybe—feel bad for him and come back. After few long moments of Luffy having a staring match with the grass, the rat made the mistake of poking its head out. Luffy was off like a shot, tearing up clumps of dirt in his wake. Zoro chased after him, not wanting to lose sight of him and end up lost. After a long run full of ducking under branches and hurdling logs the rat finally dove into a hole. Zoro walked over to where Luffy was glaring at the rat's burrow and trying vainly to reach into the hole to retrieve his prey.

Zoro laughed and placed a reassuring hand on Luffy's shoulder, who finally gave up on the rat. Despite the fact that they'd gotten a little side-tracked, it had all turned out for the best. Zoro could hear the faint sounds of water somewhere beyond the trees. He handed Luffy one of the pots that he'd been carrying for him.

"We'll get it later." He assured him, making his way towards the sound of water. After wrestling with some overgrown shrubs, Zoro stepped through a row of bushes and was instantly soaked up to knee in water. He cursed and withdrew his soaking pant leg before leaning over to run a hand over the water. It was crystal clear, which allowed him to see the bottom, as well as the fact that the river didn't have any fish in it.

"I wonder if there are more of those rats." Luffy said, dipping his pot into the river. "Let's catch one for breakfast."

"The sun hasn't even set and you're already thinking about breakfast?" Zoro sighed exasperatedly. Luffy blinked, looking at his first mate as though he were an idiot. "Right… my mistake… for breakfast, then." He said, filling his own pot, and moving to stand. Zoro regarded his surrounding for a moment, and turned to Luffy expectantly.

"Which way's back?" Luffy shrugged, and Zoro almost dropped the water he was carrying. "You don't know?"

"I was chasing a rat." He replied.

"Great." Zoro said, "Let's just get the rat to lead us back, then." Luffy laughed, all sarcasm lost on him.

"That's a stupid idea." He glanced down the stream, and set his pot on the ground, throwing one stretchy arm into the trees. He pulled himself onto one of the higher branches, turning in a circle to get a look at the surroundings. After a moment, he pointed at something that Zoro couldn't see from his vantage point. "There's the big rock." He yelled, jumping down from the tree. "Let's go." Zoro nodded and followed Luffy, both of them trying their hardest to not spill their water or get turned around.

It didn't take long for them to get back to camp, since they were taking a much more direct route this time—one that didn't involve chasing a rat all over the damn place—though they still managed to end up on the side of the beach opposite what they were _trying_ to get to.

Zoro sighed and set his water down. After putting a skillet over the top to keep it from evaporating as well as to keep anything from getting inside, he sat down against a large rock, throwing a large branch onto the dying flames. They'd left the fire burning, mostly because it was a pain in the ass to get started, and Zoro didn't feel like devoting a lot of time whenever they wanted or needed one. Not to mention the fact that the fire was their best chance of signaling the Thousand Sunny, especially now, since it was growing steadily darker as the sun slid below the horizon.

Luffy set his water down next to Zoro's, covering it similarly, before moving to sit down next to his first mate. He grabbed a stick from their wood pile and proceeded to poke the fire with it, stirring a swirl of ember into the air, only to have them swept down the beach by a cold wind. He shivered and inched closer to the larger man, using him as a wind block, and Zoro made no protest.

The two lapsed into comfortable silence, each entertained with their own thoughts. The foremost of which was, or course, how long they would be waiting for rescue. Hopefully not long. A couple days at most, because Zoro certainly didn't want to stay on this island any longer than he had to. Something about the island just gave him a bad feeling—perhaps it was the fact that they hadn't really gotten a chance to explore yet—not to mention the fact that it was damn cold at night, especially for a summer island.

The night was quiet, save for the fire, the waves and the wind. No sounds came from the forest behind them, and that could probably be attributed to the cold. The really marvelous thing, though, was not the lack of crickets chirping, but the fact that Luffy wasn't jabbering away about this and that_._

Zoro turned to his captain, reaching out a hand to brush the younger man's shoulder. He started, glanced over to Zoro, and flashed a giant, reassuring smile.

"What's on your mind?" Zoro asked, though he was pretty sure he knew the answer. Luffy hummed and lay back, placing both hands behind his head for support.

"I was just thinking." He mused, "How long do you think it will take for Nami and the others to find us?" Zoro smirked, seeing the question for what it was.

"They're fine. Nami can handle a storm like that, no problem. You know they all can." He assured. Luffy cocked his head to the side, not at all surprised that Zoro had seen right through his question. Despite this, he still laughed, waving a dismissive hand in front of his face.

"That's not what I asked." He said, though he looked satisfied with the answer nonetheless. Zoro shrugged and threw another large log onto the fire before grabbing the tablecloth and throwing it in his captain's general direction.

"I'm going to try and get some sleep." He muttered even as he stuck a hand in his pocket to brush his thumb over the short paring knife, making sure that he still had it with him. "We'll explore the island tomorrow."


	3. Chapter 3

-DMTwins-

"Oi, Zoro." The swordsman in question ignored the whine, swatting away an offending hand that was trying to poke him in the cheek. "Get up! I'm hungry!" Zoro groaned and rolled over, ignoring his captain.

"It's too early…" He mumbled, earning a sharp stab between the shoulder blades. Luffy puffed out his cheeks and continued to poke Zoro in the back and neck. The swordsman couldn't help but notice that he smelled minty—he'd probably been chewing on the plants that he'd stuffed into his pockets yesterday.

"Get up! It's not early, the sun is up!" He said, poking his head this time. "It's lunch time!" He hummed, before adding: "and we haven't even eaten breakfast!" He spat the last comment as though it were a deadly sin. He'd been at this for about fifteen minutes, sitting on his haunches next to his first mate and trying to get him to get up and come along on his little adventure.

He didn't know that the swordsman had stayed up long after his captain had fallen asleep, watching the forest warily. He simply couldn't shake the feeling that there was more than just a few rats lurking behind the trees and he didn't want anything sneaking up on him in the dark—by the time that exhaustion had finally overtaken him, it was already almost dawn.

Irritated, Luffy stood and started walking toward the trees.

"Fine!" He huffed. "I guess I'll go alone then." The rubber boy began walking away, albeit slowly, and upon reaching the tree line, turned back to the swordsman. He was still lying on his back, completely apathetic to his captain.

"Zoooooroooo—" He whined, puffing out his cheeks and squatting in the sand to draw circles in the dirt. He continued this for another minute, whining to himself, before an idea hit him. He glanced up at the swordsman's sleeping form and grinned devilishly.

"Oi, Zoro. Come with me to get lunch." Luffy demanded. When this earned no more response than any of his other attempts had, he added, rather haughtily: "Captain's orders."

There was a moment of pause, where Zoro still refused to move, but finally he grudgingly turned on his side to send his captain a flat look—to which Luffy simply waggled his eyebrows—before climbing to his feet. He sighed, brushed sand off his pants, and reluctantly followed after Luffy as the boy excitedly bounded into the trees.

Of course, Zoro knew that he would eventually be coerced into going along with his captain to find one of those damn rats—orders were orders, after all, even coming from an empty-headed little kid like Luffy. Besides, Luffy had said that he wanted a rat for breakfast, and Zoro _had_ agreed. He rubbed one bleary eye and shoved a large leaf that was obstructing his view away with his other hand.

Luffy was trotting happily in front of him, chattering away about how he had dibs on the first rat they catch and about how he wanted to explore the island a little more after they ate—though he wasn't attempting to walk backwards, and that was probably because he was searching intently for any sign of his prey.

"Oi Luffy, would you just shut up for a little bit?" He asked tiredly, already rubbing his temples in an attempt to prevent the headache growing there. "You'll probably scare the rats away." The second part had been intended more as incentive than anything else—the rats didn't seem all that scared of humans in the first place—but it worked all the same, and his captain quickly lapsed into silence, focusing all his attention of finding one of the rats.

Zoro sighed in relief—earning a loud 'shhhhh" from Luffy. The swordsman rolled his eyes but didn't say anything, assuming that it would only cause more difficulties. Luffy paused in his walk, and then quickly ran over to a hole beneath a tree. It was about the size of the hole the rat had escaped into yesterday.

"Did you see one?" Zoro asked. Luffy whipped around and placed a finger in front of his lips. He shook his head no, and whispered:

"No, but this looks like one of their holes!" Zoro quirked an eyebrow and watched Luffy for a moment as the rubber boy tried to see down into the hole and the proceeded to reach inside.

"And what makes you think it isn't _just _a hole?" he asked, not bothering to whisper. Luffy shot him a withering look, as though he was a lost cause, that looked so out of place on his face it made Zoro laugh. Luffy motioned insistently for him to _be quiet._ After about a minute of Luffy feeling around blindly in the hole, the smaller teen finally gave up on the effort and withdrew his hand. Luffy got up and brushed dirt off of his knees before continuing his trek as though he'd never stopped.

Zoro started to ask Luffy if he wanted to go back to where they'd seen the other rat, but he was shushed _again_ so the swordsman resigned himself to not giving a damn and decided to keep an eye out for anything edible that wasn't rat-shaped. He entertained himself by pulling the paring knife from his pocket and proceeding to toss it over and over into the air.

The two hadn't gone ten steps before Luffy stopped short—much like he had the other day—and Zoro walked into him, _again. _A less proficient person may have dropped the knife, or at least caught it and cut themselves in the process, but Zoro was the epitome of proficient, and he easily caught the knife inside its leather case before enclosing it in his palm and turning to watch as Luffy, once again, tried to sneak up on a rat.

It was over in a moment—one faulty step and a twig snapped, causing the rodent to flee from the area like a bat out of hell. Luffy darted after it, but Zoro didn't follow. Instead, he walked over to where the rat had been standing.

He'd noticed it yesterday, too. Both rats had been pawing and scratching at the ground, and as he kneeled down to get a closer look, he realized why. They were digging up the roots of a strange-looking plant with large, bulbous lumps on its leaves. The roots hardly looked edible, but probably served as a food source for something that had much stronger teeth and stomachs, like the rats… and possibly Luffy.

Zoro frowned as he heard Luffy making his way back to the swordsman—he'd demonstrated at least _some_ self control and had only chased the rat until it ran out of sight, instead of trying to follow it to the edge of the island and beyond.

"Naa, Zoro, what's wrong? Did you get lost?" He whined, coming to sit next to the swordsman. "It got away." He added rather unnecessarily, though it was probably meant more as a reason to whine than an update.

The swordsman scoffed at the question, but ignored his captain nonetheless. The roots had given him an idea and, if they were willing to wait a little longer, he could probably catch them some rats, since the creatures were obviously too fast to catch by conventional means, as Luffy had so kindly demonstrated.

The swordsman stood and walked over to a large bush, grabbing a few of the branches and slicing cleanly through them with a knife. Luffy tilted his head and watched as his first mate did this and settled on the ground with the paring knife in one hand and a stick in the other. Curious, Luffy walked over and blinked at the swordsman.

"What're you doing?" He asked, still watching as the swordsman carved notches into the stick in his hand.

"I'm making a snare, so we can catch some rats." There was a pause, before Luffy sat down next to him.

"That's stupid." He said.

"Not really." Zoro replied, not even looking up from his work.

"We'll just kick their asses." The captain insisted, leaning forward with an earnest expression. Zoro sighed and glanced up at the boy, looking not at all amused.

"Because that worked so well the last two times." He said matter-of-factly. Luffy looked as though he was going to protest, but decided against it since, really, there was no way to argue with Zoro's logic. Instead he crossed his legs and resigned himself to watching the swordsman.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Luffy asked, nodding toward the incomplete snare. The swordsman shrugged.

"Just something I picked up, I guess." He replied. Luffy nodded and watched the swordsman as he stripped bark from a long stick.

"I'm bored." Luffy declared, leaping to his feet. "I'm going to go explore." Zoro looked up at this.

"All right, but if you get lost it's your own damn fault." Luffy laughed and assured Zoro that if anyone would be getting lost, it wouldn't be him, before bounding off into the trees.

Luffy had wandered around for a bit, been distracted by a funny-looking creature—only to find that it was a rock in disguise—and had discovered another patch of the weird mint-plants he'd found yesterday before he decided to go back to find Zoro.

He found the swordsman in the exact same position he been in when Luffy had first gone off to explore, with only one completed snare to show for it. They'd decided to meet up at the camp after Zoro had told Luffy that he intended to make a number of snares and put them in different places on the island to better their chances of catching a rat.

Since Luffy had no intention of waiting around until Zoro had made and distributed the snares, he'd decided to head back to camp right away and try to find something to eat on the way. That was three hours ago.

It had occurred, belatedly, that there was a chance that Zoro would get lost on his way back to camp, but he'd given his first mate the benefit of the doubt. Sighing, Luffy hauled himself off of the sand—he hadn't found anything to eat, and he was getting hungry.

Luffy started off into the forest, not really paying attention to where he was going—since he was sure Zoro wasn't either—and wondering if any of the snares had actually caught something. He wandered first past the snare that he'd seen Zoro set, and then to the river. The swordsman wasn't at either—though he did run across another snare along the way.

Irritated, Luffy decided to climb into the treetops to try and see if he could spot his first mate from above. This effort was met by an expanse of forest, but no swordsman. Luffy turned toward a direction he was pretty sure he hadn't come from and stretched his arms to grab the branches of a neighboring tree. He pulled them taunt and, with a minimal amount of aiming, shot himself off in that direction to attempt to find the missing man.

He almost hadn't seem him, actually, as he was crouching on the ground—probably to assemble yet another snare—and somewhat resembled a bush with his green hair. Luffy snickered at the idea of a bush-Zoro before grabbing hold of a nearby tree branch and landing just above the swordsman with no small amount of grace.

"Zoro!" he beamed.

"Oi, Luffy, don't—" without allowing him to finish, Luffy jumped from the tree to land next to the swordsman. He realized only _after_ he'd landed that he probably would have done well to wait and hear what Zoro was going to tell him not to do, as the ground shifted violently as it buckled under his weight and sent him sprawling. This shift in Luffy's balance only served to disturb the ground beneath them more as everything within a ten meter radius collapsed into bottomless darkness, pirates included.

"You idiot!" Zoro yelled mid-freefall, kicking off a rock to avoid being flattened between two larger ones that had been jarred loose as well. Luffy laughed and grabbed the swordsman by the forearm before stretching his other hand to grab onto the edge of the chasm. The pair glided to the edge of the wall—though not without being pelted with their fair share of rocks.

Zoro let out a low whistle as the rest of the rock continued to fall and _finally_ hit the bottom. It was a long drop. He craned his neck to glare at his captain, who was grinning ear-to-ear at the excitement of it all.

"Why the hell do you think I was just crouching there?" He snapped. Luffy shrugged as best as their position would allow before staring around Zoro to look into the pit below them.

"I though you were putting up a snare…" he said with an unapologetic shrug before brightening up considerably, "Let's explore the cave!" and without allowing the swordsman to put his two cents in on the idea, Luffy released the hand that had been holding onto the cave wall. Zoro didn't have much chance for protest, but instead let out a surprised shout as he plummeted toward the cave floor.

He was saved, of course, from splattering on stone when Luffy used the hand still tight around his arm to throw the swordsman above him, inflating like a balloon and allowing him to bounce painfully onto the ground. Luffy, naturally, was the first to bounce back and he quickly leaped to his feet to survey his surroundings while Zoro was left to wonder if it might have been better to splatter on the rocks after all.

Grudgingly, Zoro got to his feet, grumbling about stupid captains and recklessness rivaled by none. His eyebrow noticeably twitched as Luffy ran circles round him, gawking at every interesting—and not so interesting—aspect of the cave. After his third pass around the swordsman, Luffy felt something latch onto the back of his vest as he was knocked flat by the inertia from his running.

"…hnn…" He noised, rubbing the back of his head and looking up at Zoro with accusing eyes. "That was mean!" Zoro sighed and offered his captain a hand, which he reluctantly accepted.

"Settle down." Zoro grumbled, turning his attention to the hole above them. "You done? Exploring? Because if you are, I want to get out of here." He said. Luffy laughed, and the swordsman turned to him with an irritated expression. This kind of reaction, of course, could only mean that Luffy had no intention of being done exploring _whatsoever_ and Zoro, therefore, had no way to get out of the cave, since his arms were not rubber and the ceiling of the expansive area they'd fallen into must be at least one hundred feet high.

His captain adjusted the hat on his head and jerked a thumb in the direction of one of the many tunnels dotting the walls of the cave.

"I want to explore one of the tunnels!" he beamed, confirming Zoro's suspicions. The swordsman sighed—the tunnels probably spidered out all over the damn island and he had no doubt that even someone like Nami could get hopelessly lost in the catacombs that make up this network of tunnels. He and Luffy? Well, they'd probably be lost as soon as they lost sight of the hole in the ceiling above them.

"No."

"Captain's orders." Luffy countered, since he'd had fairly good results with that little card today. Zoro wasn't buying it. He decided that it might still be worth the effort to try and talk Luffy out of it.

"We'll get lost." He said.

"I don't care."

"It's pitch black, and we don't have a light."

"So?"

"There's no food in these caves."

A beat.

Luffy hummed to himself, turning toward one of the tunnels. "We can eat after we're done exploring…" he said. Zoro sighed—this was getting him nowhere—and he walked over to stand next to Luffy. As he did, a cool breeze blew over them both. He paused, starting down the tunnel he _thought_ the breeze had come from. Yes, it was definitely that one.

"Fine." He said, and Luffy instantly perked up at the idea of exploring the tunnels with Zoro, "but we're exploring this one." He pointed to the tunnel and Luffy nodded eagerly.

"Okay!" He cheered, starting off down the tunnel. Zoro followed, hoping that the tunnel would be a more-or-less straight shot to the outside, with no holes, no rapid drops or inclines, and no strange creatures. After all, the tunnel was enveloped in darkness as soon as it got a few feet away from the large cavern they been in prior.

The darkness didn't seem to bother Luffy at all—he was walking a ways ahead of Zoro, humming a tune to himself as he walked—the same one from before—as though they were walking down the beach. This hardly counted as exploring, Zoro decided, as they couldn't really see anything, and they weren't even sure if the tunnel led anywhere.

Ahead of him, Luffy yelped and Zoro nearly walked over him.

"What?" Zoro asked, as Luffy grabbed a fistful of his shirt. Luffy laughed and used the shirt to pull himself up—apparently he'd tripped.

"There's a hole there." The younger replied as water splashed on Zoro's pant leg. "And it's full of water."

"Lovely." Zoro said as Luffy started off down the tunnel again, stumblingly only once before he got back into the swing of things. They'd been walking for a while now, and Zoro suddenly got the feeling that he and Luffy had been separated—he didn't hear the boy's footsteps anymore. He thought they'd been separated, that is, until he took another step and tripped over him completely.

"What the hell, Luffy? Stop doing that."

"Haha, sorry, Zoro!" He chirped. "My sandal fell off." Zoro felt the air around his face swirl as the shoe passed within centimeters of his face.

"Well, don't wave it around, put it on." He snapped. Luffy complied and then grabbed onto the side of Zoro's shirt, pulling him along.

Zoro considered protesting, since it felt rather childish being pulled along, though he decided against it since Luffy didn't seem bothered by it and no one was around to see it—not that they could have seen it if they were there, it was so damn dark.

Slowly, the tunnel began to curve to the right, and Zoro was surprised when he realized that he could just barely make out the silhouette of his captain walking in front of him. Another minute of walking, and they walked right into the entrance of a cave. The two stopped in their tracks, momentarily stunned by the bright light.

"Look, Zoro!" Luffy grinned, "Treasure!" And indeed, there was a treasure chest tucked away against the wall, as though the previous owner intended to come back for it, and didn't want their treasure to be stolen before their return. Too bad for them, really.

Zoro nodded, not all that interested in the treasure so much as the daylight that he had been beginning to think he'd never see again. The swordsman watched as Luffy bounded over and slid the chest away from the wall, a large grin plastered on his face. He tried, for all of two seconds, to pick the rusting lock with a stick he'd found on the ground, before giving up and proceeding to snap the pathetic thing in half.

The grin was all but wiped from his face when he opened the chest and found at rather odd treasure—not gold, no meat, just… bottles.

"What the hell is this?" he held up one of the bottles, looking entirely unsatisfied. Zoro grinned at the sight of it and grabbed the bottle from his hands. He wiped some of the dust from the label with his thumb. It was wine—which was a little bit too fruity for his tastes—but from the look of it, there was some decent booze in the chest as well. Luffy pouted and kicked the chest.

"Gross…" He sighed, "You carry it, I don't want any." Zoro smirked at the disappointed look on his face and placed the bottle back into the chest, closing the lid tightly and hauling it onto his shoulder. He was sure Luffy would decided he wanted some after all once he'd gotten over the fact that the treasure wasn't…well, knowing Luffy, wasn't made of meat.

"Come on, Captain. Let's take this back to camp, then we can go get those rats and we'll throw a party." Luffy immediately perked up at this, all cause for moping forgotten as he ran after the swordsman with a bounce in his step.

The crew was generally silent as their Navigator poured over a map of the area. Robin was sitting next to her, reading a book with intense interest, while the rest of the crew tried their best to not get in the way. The only other person at the table was Usopp, who was entertaining himself by stacking a number of eternal poses that the crew had bought at the last island they'd visited into precarious little piles that looked like they would toppled over at the slightest lurch.

The crew had not, at first, realized that they were missing two crew members. They were all so busy celebrating the fact that they'd survived the storm, that none of them had noticed the two were gone. It wasn't until Franky had seen the state of ship's railing, and Usopp discovered the three katana that had been haphazardly discarded on the deck, that anyone had decided to go look for their captain or first mate. When they couldn't find them, Usopp instantly flew into a state of panic, because the only time Zoro would abandon his swords was if he was desperate or dead. Usopp's panic alarmed the other crew members to the point where no one could get a word in edgewise.

After bringing the initial panic of Usopp, Chopper, and Brooke to a quick and violent end, Nami called the crew together to formulate a plan of action. She went to her cabin, returning with a map of the surrounding area that she'd bought for referencing when she drew her own map.

They'd decided that the only thing they could do was continue to the next island on their path, which was luckily less than a day's sailing away, and buy eternal poses to as many of the islands surrounding the storm as possible. They would have to assume that their first mate had managed to get them to an island. None of them wanted to consider the possibility that the two hadn't fallen off together, or that they hadn't been able to get to an island, though it crossed all of their minds.

After they'd gotten the eternal poses, Nami had done her best to navigate back to the general area of the storm. The only thing left for them to do now was decide which islands were their best bets, and where they should go from here.

After sitting in silence for another couple of minutes, Nami finally sat back in her seat, sliding her map farther onto the table before resting her forehead on her palms.

"I can't be certain, but our best bet would be to start with the islands that the current from the storm most likely carried them to…" She glanced at her map, and then reached over to grab three of the eternal poses, setting them in front of herself carefully. "There are three possible choices, two inhabited, one not…"

"Which one is closest?" Chopper asked, eyes fixed on the map as though he were trying to decipher some sort of ancient script.

"This one," Nami pointed, "It's one of the inhabited islands… "

"Then we'll start there." He decided, turning to look at the rest of the crew. Usopp shrugged, and Franky nodded. Brooke continued to play the violin, Robin continued to read, and Sanji lit a cigarette. No one agreed. No one disagreed.

"I'm… not sure yet." Nami decided, her head still pinched between her palms.

"Well why not?" Usopp snapped, surprising everyone, himself included. Of course, Sanji was across the room and ready to put boot to face faster than anyone could even register the comment. Luckily for Usopp, Robin was faster, and managed to restrain the furious cook. Ignoring the cook's protests, she glanced up from her book and at the map, before snapping it shut.

"Before we decide to make out crew even smaller," she gave Sanji an amused look, "I have a suggestion." She handed Nami the book she'd been reading. It was old and worn at the corners, with a simple brown cover, and the words: On Genetics etched in large, loopy letters.

"I thought that I recognized the name of one of these islands," she gestured to one of the eternal poses, "I suggest we start there."

"What makes you think they're there?" Nami asked as she handed the book back to Robin. The archeologist smiled and accepted the book.

"If we're lucky, they won't be."


	4. Chapter 4

-DMTwins-

"We caught one!" Luffy cheered as he bounded forward and grabbed the large, cat-sized rat by its tail—effectively snapping the snare in half as he did so—and raised it above his head like a trophy.

"Damn it, Luffy! Don't break the snares." Zoro snapped, though he was relieved to see that the snares were functional. The last one they'd looked at had been empty, and Zoro was wondering if they would work at all. Luffy grinned and stuffed the rat into his pocket—much to Zoro's dismay—and started off to check the other snares. He'd seen one earlier—before they'd fallen into the cave—and the rubber boy was intent on checking that one next.

Zoro considered telling Luffy to take the rat out of his pocket, but those pockets had probably seen worse and he decided to let bygones be bygones. Instead, he followed Luffy, who seemed to know where he was going despite the fact that he hadn't been around when Zoro set up the snares.

The pair had taken the chest back to camp and, after Luffy had taken the time to empty his pockets—which were stuffed full off the minty-green plants he'd been chewing on since their discovery—into a pot, they'd started off to check the snares and see how many rats they would have for their "party".

More than one, hopefully. Zoro had set a total of eight snares, after all, not counting the one he'd tried to set above the cavern, and he was hoping that they could get at least two rats each. Neither of them had eaten since the eggs yesterday, and it was already well into the afternoon.

Zoro was torn from his thoughts by the overwhelming feeling that they were being watched. He glanced up at Luffy, who had apparently noticed it too, since he'd stopped in his tracks. Somewhere behind him, a twig snapped, and Zoro quickly turned, but saw nothing in the area behind him. The swordsman was all too aware of the smell of blood. It wasn't human… but…

Another twig snapped, and this time when he turned he was met with a pair of blue, serpent-like eyes. The creature in front of him was small, and almost entirely blue in color save for the purple underbelly and the green spines down its back. It was raptor-like, with three sharp talons on each foot. There was also a thick, green ring around its neck, which stuck out slightly from the rest of its skin.

It looked quite vicious, and would have been intimidating, really, except for one thing. It was small. Barely four feet in height, it could only look curiously up at the two strange creatures before it. In its mouth was a rat, obviously long dead, and the raptor quickly threw it into the air and ate the creature whole, as though it was afraid its dinner would be stolen.

Luffy laughed at the sight, which caused the creature to scurry back into the bushes. It turned its head to the side to get a better view of them. It looked very much like a bird, and the fact that it was cooing with interest only made it seem more like one.

"Hi!" Luffy said. Though the creature no longer started at the noise, it did back off a few steps, regarding them with one, curious eye. Zoro watched as a smile played its way across his captain's face, and Luffy stepped forward, determined to get a better view of the creature. In a flash, it darted off into the bushes, being much faster than even the rats were.

Luffy tried to go after it, but stopped when a staying hand fell on his shoulder.

"Leave it." Zoro said. It looked harmless, really, but Zoro couldn't help but think that they should just ignore the creature and hope they didn't see it again. Something about it, and he wasn't sure what, gave him a bad feeling.

Luffy pouted, but complied, and allowed Zoro to take the lead as they walked off to check the rest of the snares. That thing was so cool! It was all colorful, and it was really fast, too! Luffy frowned when he heard a twig snap behind him once more, and turned in time to see the creature dive frantically into a bush. He could still clearly see it—there was no hiding when you were bright blue in color—though it was trying it's best to stay out of sight. Luffy laughed, and Zoro turned to look as well, just as the creature gingerly stepped from the bush.

"It thinks you're family." Luffy decided, turning to Zoro with a determined look. Zoro frowned.

"What makes you think that?" Luffy smiled and pointed to the creatures spines, and it bristled a bit at the attention.

"You both have green hair!" Zoro choked a little at the stupidity of the comment, shooting Luffy a withering look. The teen just laughed and ignored Zoro in favor of the raptor-like creature that was ever-so-slowly inching toward them.

"All right, I've decided! Your name will be Meat!" Luffy declared with a triumphant smile. Zoro raised an eyebrow.

"You're going to _eat it_?" Zoro smirked, while the creature ran a small circle at the sound of the word 'meat'. Luffy shrugged.

"Not right away." He answered, as though not eating it right away would make up for the insult of eating it later. The answer was so nonchalant that Zoro almost felt bad for the thing, as it was doomed to being nothing more than a meal. It seemed unfazed, as it walked a little closer to Luffy, still eyeing him as though he may attack at any moment.

"Luffy, I'm pretty sure it just wants the rat in your pocket." Zoro pointed out. Luffy paused, remembered that yes, he did have a dead rat in his pocket, and pulled it out by the tail, holding it towards Zoro. In a flash of blue, the rat was torn from Luffy's hand, and the boy let out an indignant yell even as the creature swallowed it whole.

"You bastard! That was mine!" He screamed. "That's it, I'm eating you now!" Zoro smirked as Luffy lunged forward, grabbing the tail of the retreating beast. It was short lived, however, as the creature let out a cry that made Zoro's entire body just scream "run", and all traces of a smirk disappeared form his face.

"Luffy, let it go!" He yelled. Luffy, startled by the urgency in his voice, quickly released the creature and watched as it retreated into the bushes. The moment it disappeared a long, low scream resonated through the trees behind them. The two turned as one to see a creature similar, though much, _much_ larger than the first standing in the taller trees that made up the second ring of the forest and looking thoroughly pissed off. It lowered its head and screamed again, showing multiple rows of long, sharp teeth. The only difference between this one and the one they'd seen earlier, save for the size, was the fact that the band around the neck was a much thinner one.

A moment later the creature from before emerged from the bushes to stand slightly behind the larger one. It assumed a similar position and let out a pitiful hiss, puffing up a small, green frill as it did so. It was apparently much more courageous when it had large, and angry, allies. After hissing it bobbed its head silently, as though to say "my work here is done" and retreated back into the bushes to let its companion take care of business.

The larger of the two raptors made a sound that could only be described as an approving coo as the smaller disappeared. It then returned its attention to Zoro and Luffy, who had assumed defensive positions, ready for a fight. It let out a deafening shriek that fully showed a set of knife-like teeth.

"Luffy, be careful, this thing is probably just as fast as the other one." Zoro said, and Luffy nodded in agreement. Zoro grimaced. No matter how strong they were, he had no doubt in his mind that they might have trouble dealing with a beast nearly twice their size, with teeth nearly the length of his hand especially since neither of them were at their peak fighting condition. A brief glance in Luffy's direction showed that Luffy was probably thinking the same thing. Zoro pulled the pairing knife out of his case, feeling rather pitiful with nothing larger to defend himself, and really wishing that he had his swords with him.

It darted out of the trees and made a dash for the two, as though intending to finish them off quickly. It didn't get its wish, however, as they dodged out of the way and hurried in either direction. Its gaze shifted to Zoro, who was wielding the paring knife with an expert hand. The moment it turned Luffy slung his fist back and drove it into the beast's side. It stumbled slightly before regaining its footing and turning to hiss at Luffy menacingly, thoroughly unfazed by the blow.

"Hoo, this thing's tough." Luffy said with a challenging smile. "Yosh, take this!" He drew his foot back, this time to sling it forward like a rubber whip. The thing saw his attack coming and swiftly ducked out of the way. Luffy spun around and nearly kicked Zoro in the head before regaining his composure just in time to dodge another attack.

"Watch it you idiot!" Zoro shouted as he ducked to avoid being knocked over by the raptor's tail. He immediately sprung up from the ground and attempted to land a debilitating blow on the beast's leg, but he only managed to scratch the thing. Zoro tried several more times without drawing blood before retreating to stand by Luffy, who had been trying equally hard to land an effective blow.

"My punches aren't doing anything." Luffy said, slightly out of breath after a barrage of blows. This thing was tough, and it didn't help that he hadn't eaten all day. He really wished he had some meat to eat right now.

"What the hell is this thing made of? I can't even cut it… I need my swords." He moved out of the way as Luffy landed another blow to the thing's side. It stumbled again, and again it straightened out even more pissed off than before. Luffy reeled back in surprise as it darted between the two. In one swift movement it dove toward Luffy and managed to hit Zoro with its tail. Luffy blocked his face, and the raptor sunk its claws into his forearm for a moment before Luffy jerked his arm free, clumsily kicked it off, and rolled out of the way.

Zoro pushed himself to his feet with a little more effort than he would have liked. This thing was much stronger than the dinosaurs he'd seen on Little Garden—and those had been much larger. He hadn't actually fought one like this, but the _cook_ had taken it out with ease, so it must have been weaker than this. The thing had turned its full attention to Zoro now, since it had lost sight of Luffy.

All at once the creature decided that Zoro wasn't worthy of its attention, as it spun around to face his captain, who was pulling himself to his feet. And then Zoro saw _why_ it had turned. There was Luffy, standing directly between the two raptors—completely oblivious to the fact that he was keeping the larger from the smaller. The mother from its child. Shit.

"Luffy, move!" he yelled, even as the larger raptor darted forward with killing intent. Luffy did, dodging just beside the creature's open mouth, and sending a punch directly into the creature's teeth. One dagger-like fang flew into the dirt, but the creature didn't seem to notice. It was happy to be reunited with what Zoro was convinced was its young. It made an odd, cooing noise in the back of its throat and, after some hesitation, the smaller one darted off into the bushes—into safety.

The larger one returned its focus to Zoro, no longer distracted by its young's well being.

The mother cocked its head to the side and made another cooing sound, this time with a more urgent tone. It only took a moment for Zoro to realize what it was doing, but a moment was long enough as the smaller raptor from before darted out of the bushes once more to clamp onto his leg. Zoro attempted to kick it off and it let out an indignant squeal but held fast to its prey. The cooing was some kind of communication between the two. The damn mother was using _him_ to teach her baby how to hunt!

"ZORO!" before he had time to react, pain exploded through his left shoulder and he cursed himself for turning his back on the enemy, if only for a second. It tossed its head to the side, and attempted to tear his shoulder loose for a mid-fight snack. It would have succeeded, had it not been blindsided by a rubber projectile. The raptor started to hiss at him before realizing that by opening its mouth it was dropping its prey. Instead, it attempted to bat Luffy off with its tail. It landed a blow on the captain's jaw and sent him flying into the trunk of a nearby tree. Luffy stumbled to his feet once more and spat in the dirt.

All of the motion was jarring Zoro's shoulder painfully. He attempted to pry the thing's jaws open, but only proved to cut his hand. A particularly well-placed punch from Luffy hit the thing right in the eye, and it curled its head forward in pain. Slightly longer, Zoro noticed, than it had any other time it had been hit.

He'd been holding the pairing knife in his left hand, so tightly that his knuckles were white. With a great deal of effort, between the thrashing and the attempts from Luffy to get it to drop him, he managed to pass the knife from one hand to the other. His arm felt like it weighed a ton as he lifted it over his head—he must have lost a lot more blood than he thought. With all the strength he could muster he rammed the knife into its eye. It thrashed violently as he pushed the knife in further, and the raptor gave in, letting out a pained shriek.

Zoro dropped painfully to the ground once more as it screeched and writhed in pain. Luffy dove forward and pushed him out of the way as its legs gave out and it crumpled to the ground. There was a long pause, filled only with the sound of their ragged breathing. The smaller raptor let out a low whine and moved to nudge the larger raptor pitifully. It paced a few nervous circles before deciding that it was unsafe to stay and darted off to disappear into the second ring of trees once more. After a long pause, Luffy decided that the mother wasn't going to get up again.

"Hnn…" Luffy noised as he approached the thing. He prodded it with his shoe before nodding in approval. Luffy turned to Zoro with a wide grin, but at the sight of his first mate the smile died on his lips. Zoro pushed himself to his feet none-too-painlessly.

"Hey, are you okay? You don't look too good." Zoro nodded slightly—though he didn't even seem convinced himself—before testing the leg that had been bitten. Satisfied that it would hold his weight, he walked over—with a slight limp, though he'd never admit it—to try and retrieve the pairing knife from the thing's eye. He gave it an experimental pull—which did absolutely nothing—and eventually abandoned the task entirely. He stooped over to retrieve one of the knocked out fangs instead, placing that in his pocket. It was bigger, anyway.

He seemed a little unsteady, and Luffy frowned. He'd seen his first mate lose a lot more blood... In fact, a wound of this kind would usually be written off as a scratch and ignored entirely. It was then that he noticed the sickly-yellow colored liquid seeping through Zoro's torn pant leg.

"Oi, Zoro—" his head snapped up when heard a twig snap behind him. He whirled around and kicked his attacker, sending the smaller raptor flying into the bushes. It ran towards him, teeth bared, and trying it's absolute hardest to scare Luffy and Zoro off. It started toward him again, a little more cautiously after being kicked away the first time.

"Get lost." Luffy snapped. In an instant, Meat froze, meeting Luffy's eyes for a few more seconds before turning and running back the way it came as quickly as its legs would carry it.

"Coward." He muttered, turning to back to his first mate, though his mind quickly went to other things as the swordsman's legs gave out from beneath him. And he quickly moved to catch the swordsman on his descent. He grabbed onto either shoulder—which was a mistake, as it caused the swordsman to hiss in pain. Luffy quickly adjusted his grip, muttering an apology that Zoro didn't hear.

The swordsman sat still for a moment, willing the black spots that were swarming his vision away. His entire body felt as though it were made of stone and for a moment he actually thought that that was what was wrong—that the creature's bite was turning him to stone. But no, he couldn't move his arms, and they looked fine—save for the stream of blood running from the wound on his shoulder.

"..th... hell..s'is.." he said, and his tongue must have been turning to stone, too, because that hardly made sense to _him_. But he'd already decided that he wasn't turning to stone. And if he wasn't turning to stone, then damn it, he should be able to walk just fine.

Leaning heavily against Luffy, he heaved a shuddering breath and slowly tried to pull himself to his feet, despite the protests of the other. He was pretty sure that Luffy was talking, and he tried his hardest to get his pounding heart to _shut the fuck up_ so he could listen to what his captain had to say, but to no avail.

Again and for no apparent reason this time, his vision swam and the world tilted violently to the left. Poison, he decided, though he wasn't sure if he'd come to that conclusion on his own, or if Luffy had told him. He tried to focus on the boy who was keeping him from falling face-first into the dirt. This was stupid. He'd be fine, he just needed a few minutes to recollect himself, that was all.

He tried to voice his opinion, but now his entire throat was working against him, not just his tongue, and he noticed that it was getting harder to breath, too. The pain in his shoulder and leg had all but disappeared, though he wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. Before he could pursue the thought any further, his vision went to black and the universe tipped upside-down. Over the pounding of his heart in his ears, he was pretty sure he could hear someone screaming.


	5. Chapter 5

-DMTwins-

This wasn't good. Luffy frowned at his first mate, who had been drifting in and out of consciousness. He gingerly grabbed the swordsman's good arm and used it to keep the man balanced as he hauled him onto his back, intent to take him back to camp.

After he was sure that he wasn't going to be jarring either of the man's injuries too badly, Luffy stood and turned in the direction of camp, completely ignoring the raptor. It would be a good source of food, but there was no way that Luffy could carry Zoro back to camp while dragging the mother behind him as well. There were more important things to deal with.

He began heading back to camp as quickly as the swordsman on his back would allow, praying that he had not gotten turned around in the fight. His head slumped forward against his shoulder as he began to move, which Luffy was thankful for as well. If he could not feel the brief warmth from his breathing, Luffy probably would have thought that Zoro was dead. But he wasn't dead. Dying maybe, but not dead—because Zoro had a dream to fulfill, and there was no way in hell a stupid blue thing would keep him from his dream.

Thankfully, Luffy had chosen the correct direction to walk, as the distance from camp to the second ring of trees really wasn't that far and he quickly came up on the camp. He set the swordsman down by the fire pit—which had burned out sometime last night. The beach was oddly quiet, even the waves seemed to sense that their noisy crash-slap against the shore would be unwanted noise.

He quickly tore away the tattered shirt, which had since begun to stick to the edges of the wound as the blood dried. He grabbed one of the pots that had been filled with water the night before, and tore off a piece of Zoro's shirt to run carefully around the edges of the bite, cleaning away dirt and dried blood.

The sun was beginning to set by now, but Luffy continued to wash the wound on Zoro's shoulder. He didn't really know what he was doing—he'd only ever practiced tying bandages on himself when he didn't have a doctor to turn to. And those wounds were nothing like this. Not to mention the fact that he had no idea what to do about poison. All he knew was that a person could die of poisoning if they didn't get to a doctor as quickly as possible. Biting his bottom lip, Luffy tried to remember what Chopper usually did when Zoro got sliced open.

Well that was obvious. He sewed him up—but Luffy didn't have a needle… or thread. So that wouldn't work.

The bleeding was beginning to slow—which was good. He considered simply bandaging the wounds without sewing them up. It was the best he could do, really, as he tried to tear strips from the table cloth they'd found in the crate earlier.

He tried to wrap the shoulder wound, but decided that it was too dark for him to be doing anything, and he grabbed the metal fork, turning to look for the rock Zoro had used to start a fire earlier. He found it lying a few feet away and tried a few times to get a fire to light. At first, his efforts didn't even produce sparks—which was enough to send the already stressed captain into near hysterics, he finally managed to figure it out, just as he was considering wrapping bandages in the dark. Zoro'd made it look a lot easier than it was.

After getting it started, he threw three logs on the flame to make sure it didn't go out, and almost smothered the fire in the process. Frantically, he pulled one of the logs from the fire, and made _certain _that it was going to burn before replacing the log again. He turned to Zoro and was shocked to see that he was awake and laughing at his antics, all the while trying vainly to sit up.

Placing a hand on the older man's chest, Luffy gently urged him to lie down.

"Don't," Luffy said. Zoro frowned at the hand on his chest, fixing unsteady eyes on it as though he weren't entirely sure what it was. After a moment he moved to grab Luffy around the wrist with his good arm.

"…m'…fine…" He mumbled, his frown deepening at every failed attempt at speaking coherently. He tried to get up again, but Luffy forced him back.

"Don't be stupid!" Luffy snapped, "Lay down." The swordsman's eyes moved slowly from his wrist to rest lazily on his captain's face. He must have decided that it would be in his best interest to listen, because the swordsman relaxed slightly under his touch and heaved a ragged breath.

Luffy tensed as he realized that even the small amount of movement had jarred his wounds, and that blood was running freely from the wound in his shoulder once again.

He grabbed Zoro's shirt, which was torn and ruined anyway, and pressed it to the wound, willing the bleeding to stop. As soon as Luffy did so the swordsman's hand shot out, clenching onto Luffy's forearm with surprising strength as he tried to pull away the offending pressure. His eyes were clouded over from the pain, and Luffy was pretty sure that he was just barely hanging onto consciousness, if he was still awake at all. Despite the obvious pain, Zoro didn't cry out, and Luffy almost wished he would. Because if he didn't cry out—when he obviously _wanted_ to—it probably meant that he _couldn't _cry out.

Carefully, he pulled Zoro's hand away and, for all that he was clenching onto Luffy's arm pretty tightly, the action was met with little resistance.

"Stop dying," Luffy said through clenched teeth, even as he tried to keep the swordsman from bleeding out. His mind went momentarily back to that morning, "Captains orders—you can't die."

This comment earned the phantom traces of a smirk on the swordsman's face, though it quickly vanished beneath a pained grimace. He might have even seen an affirming nod—though it may have just been wishful thinking—as it was apparent that the swordsman was no longer conscious, his face more-or-less expressionless and his skin sheet white in color. If it weren't for the haggard breathing, he would have looked dead.

He let up the pressure on the first mates shoulder slightly and, deciding that this was the best it was going to be, he quickly wrapped the shoulder and leg wounds, and then proceeded to wrap the less-threatening cut on his hand. A drop of blood fell from Luffy's arm onto the clean bandage, startling the captain. That's right—he'd been bitten too. But if that was the case, shouldn't the poison have affected him as well? Unless it wasn't poison… but poison was the only thing that made sense! Not that it made sense for Zoro to be affected, and not him. Was it because he was a rubber man?

He frowned, tearing off another strip of the tablecloth to wrap tightly around his arm. He was so stupid! If he'd known that the thing's poison only affected Zoro, he would have fought it alone. He could have stabbed the thing in the eye just as well as the swordsman could, and then Zoro wouldn't be dying from some mystery-poison that only worked on him!

It was almost entirely dark by now, with the last traces of the sun vanishing quickly below the horizon. Luffy sat in the sand, at a loss as to what to do, before he realized that he really didn't _want_ to just sit around and do nothing, hoping that Zoro would get better on his own. He also realized that there was really nothing else in his power for him to do—he wasn't a doctor, and it wasn't like he could just make an antidote.

So Luffy grabbed the pot of water that he'd been using to clean their wounds—which was muddled and un-drinkable—and walked a few feet away to dump it out on the sand, if only to give himself something to do. He wasn't hungry any more—not that they had any food to eat anyway, since the only rat they'd managed to collect had been swiped by Meat.

Stupid Meat. He should have listened when Zoro said to leave it alone—Zoro'd know that there was something wrong about it, but he'd ignored him entirely and had even gone so far as to name the damn thing. If he ever saw it again, he'd kick it's ass—especially if…

But that wouldn't happen. Zoro wouldn't die so easily… now if only the rest of their crew would hurry up and find them. It had only been a day, but they needed Chopper or, more specifically, Zoro needed Chopper. Luffy had no doubt that the little doctor could quickly make an antidote for the poison out of some kind of plant that he'd bought or collected and dried himself.

_Collected and dried himself… _

Luffy dropped the pot in the sand, hurrying back to the pot he'd stuffed a bunch of mint plants in earlier. He pulled the lid off of and pulled a leaf off one of the plants and held it out to the fire. It was more-or-less unremarkable, but the more he looked at it, the more he though that that was definitely where he'd seen the plants before. Chopper had been drying them on the deck a couple weeks ago—he was sure he'd recognized it.

When he'd asked Chopper what they were for, he'd said that it was a sort of natural something-or-rather that absorbed toxins in the body…

He whirled around to face the sleeping swordsman. _That_ was why the poison didn't affect him when he was bitten. He'd been eating these leaves like candy since he'd first found them. It made sense... besides, Luffy had just managed to find a stray piece of hope to cling to, and there was no way in hell he was going to let go of it so easily.

Luffy grabbed hold of the swordsman's uninjured shoulder and gave him a little shake. No response. He needed to be awake, after all, since stuffing leaves into his mouth wouldn't do much good if the swordsman didn't chew or swallow them.

"Oi, Zoro… wake up." He shook him again, a little harder, and still earning no response. The swordsman's breathing was harsh and uneven, and he refused to be stirred.

"The island we're going to is called Peperi. It was the leading base for a study on genetics, at least, until the scientists disappeared. That was five years ago, according to the lead scientist's journal, which was recovered after the disappearances began." she motioned to the book she's been reading. "There's an epilogue after the last entry that goes on to say that, ever since that last scientist's disappearance, everyone who stops on that island vanishes as well."

"Vanishes?" Usopp squeaked, "b-but if everyone vanishes, we can't go there."

"We can't be a pirate crew without a captain, either." Sanji said, effectively shutting the sniper up. Nami nodded in agreement, and began rolling up her map.

"Sanji's right. We'll set course for Peperi… at this rate, we should arrive tomorrow afternoon." She grabbed the eternal pose labeled Peperi and headed for the door, ignoring the cooing coming from their cook. Franky followed after her to help turn the ship, leaving the rest of the crew to continue their business as best they could, anxious as they were.

Robin picked up the journal, intending to re-read it once more. Something about it was troubling her. Towards the end of the journal the writing became less and less coherent, as though the author was in a state of great stress, but she couldn't seem to figure out why. His studies, or so he had written, had been going very well up to a certain point, and he'd been getting ample funding from a private investor as well.

She opened the book to the point where the entries began getting less coherent and began to read. She really wished that she could have a talk with the person who'd been funding the project, or, ideally, the head scientist himself. Although the latter was likely impossible, as it was apparent that the head scientist had long since become unreachable. Then again, nothing was impossible on the Grand Line, even talking to the dead.

Zoro had been fading in and out of consciousness for so long that he'd lost track of what was real and what was a dream. He distinctly remembered being woken by Luffy in the middle of the night, and being told to drink a green-pulp that he called "medicine", but looked suspiciously like a bunch of leaves stuffed into a cup of water.

He'd done so, if only to humor his captain and get him to stop talking. His entire body was aching, and his head felt a lot like it was under attack by an unseen force with a very large hammer. He remembered lying in the silence, which was still too loud for his tastes, until he'd fallen asleep—or lost consciousness, he wasn't sure which. After that, he didn't remember anything else. All he knew was that it was dawn, or close to it, anyway, and that he was all alone on the beach. Last night's fire had nearly died out.

Luffy was gone, with only his hat to show that he'd even been there in the first place. It was sitting just at the edge of camp, a little ways away. He could very vaguely remember Luffy telling him to keep it safe for him, but he'd been so out of it he'd though it was a dream at the time. He considered grabbing it, but it was sitting just out of reach, and he didn't really feel like getting up to go get it. He did, however, feel well enough to sit up, which was a start.

He still felt like shit, but at least now it was bearable. He doubted Luffy's ability to actually produce something that could be called "medicine", but stranger things had happened. With a grunt, he laid back down, deciding that it would make more sense for him to wait for Luffy to come back, and hope there weren't any more raptors.

He shut his eyes, listening to the water crashing against the shore, and trying to will himself back to sleep. He'd almost succeeded, when a strange noise caught his attention. His brows furrowed, and he sat up to look out to sea, trying to identify the source of the noise. At first he didn't see anything, but then the noise came again from his left, only much louder this time. His head snapped around in time to see the baby raptor from earlier dart into the bushes.

It was scared of him, and the trees were too thin to hide another adult if there was one, so Zoro decided to try and scare the thing off. After all, its teeth were wicked-sharp, and he didn't want to have to deal with it if at all possible.

Grabbing a rock, he hurled it at the bush, causing the leaves to rustle and snap as the thing shot out and into the trees. It paused as it ran to look back, cocking its head curiously to the side, and Zoro froze as a feeling of dread washed over him. There was something in its mouth. A quick look around confirmed his suspicions.

Luffy's hat was gone, and that thing had it.

He was on his feet in a second, which was a bad idea on two counts, both because it startled the baby into a run, and because it caused a wave of dizziness to wash over him that nearly made his eat the sand. Ignoring the dizziness, he took off after the raptor, only slightly irritated that it appeared to be playing with him—running just to the point where Zoro might loose track of it before stopping and waiting for him to catch up. It cocked its head to the side cheekily, hat clamped in its jaws. If it had wanted to, it could have easily gotten away—the little bastard was fast—but it seemed just as content to continue it's little game of follow the leader.

Meat led him directly to the entrance to the catacombs that Luffy and Zoro had used earlier. It paused one last time before disappearing inside. The swordsman ran up to the entrance out of breath. It was much harder than it should have been for him to keep up with the damn thing, and it was _going easy on him,_ for god's sake.

A quick scan of the cave confirmed his expectations: he couldn't see a god-damn thing. Not that it mattered. Luffy had trusted him with his hat, and there was no way in hell he was going to let that stupid raptor eat it. He walked boldly into the cave with hopes that he would either find the raptor with the hat still intact, or that the raptor would grow bored of its game and abandon the hat somewhere in the caves. He could faintly hear the sound of claws clicking on the stone floor as it echoed down the tunnels and bounced off the walls.


End file.
